Last week we had our “Quarterly Meetings” here at work. While meetings aren’t my thing, this meeting usually bores me to death as it is full of recapping various numbers and statistics on where the company is now, etc… I am not a numbers person and details tend to bore me; however, at this particular meeting, our RVP gave his speech and I was wowed. He first caught my attention by putting a quote on the over head… I love quotes, so of course, I had to write it down. But then when he started speaking about the person who said the quote, and I was just completely engaged.
Randy Pausch. I had never even heard of him, since I watch little TV and what not, I hand’t heard the recap given on Oprah, nor had I surfed YouTube to see that like 6 million people were watching this man, who had very little time to live and was giving his ‘Last Lecture’ to people around the world. But I did finally watch it. The same night after our meeting I went home and googled the now famous professor. My 12 yr old son and I watched the Oprah abbreviated version first, then after the kids went to bed, I sat in front of my laptop and watched the entire version on YouTube.
I kept rewinding to listen the some of his stories. He was an amazing speaker. I found myself laughing, crying, and in the end awed by this person, who was no longer alive, but who had such a grip on the ways of life. The ways to live, the ways in which to apologize, the ways in which to go after your dreams… He left me wondering where he was now, did he believe in God? He didn’t go into that in his speech. How is his family doing now that he is gone? Did they absorb his passion for life and moving forward?
There were some great little anecdotes and quotes that I wrote down while watching his lecture… Here are some of my favorites:
“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
“When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones telling you they still love you and care.”
“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.”
“The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough.”
“You just have to decide if you’re a Tigger or an Eeyore.”
“When it comes to men who are romantically interested in you, it’s really simple. Just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do. It’s that simple. It’s that easy.”
“Don’t bail. The best of the gold’s at the bottom of barrels of crap.”
“Don’t complain. Just work harder.”
“Find the best in everybody. Just keep waiting no matter how long it takes. No one is all evil. Everybody has a good side, just keep waiting, it will come out.”
“Be prepared. Luck is truly where preparation meets opportunity.”
“It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.”
And if you haven't seen the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
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